WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY: Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession (Xan Cassavetes, 2004). See Ongoing for review 7, 9:20 p.m.; also Wed 2, 4:30 p.m.
FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY (Dec. 3-9): A Dogme-influenced drama, The Inheritance (Per Fly, Denmark, 2002). See Opening for review 7, 9:15 p.m.; also Sun & Wed 2, 4:30 p.m., Sat 2 p.m.
STANFORD
221 University (at Emerson), Palo Alto, (650) 324-3700, www.stanfordtheatre.org. $6. This handsomely restored neighborhood palace usually (but not always) screens pre-1960 Hollywood fare in the best available prints, with excellent projection. The Stanford continues a mostly Marlon Brando series, mingled with musicals.
WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY: By general consensus, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers' best musical, the evergreen Top Hat (Mark Sandrich, 1935; 7:30 p.m.), screening with Gregory LaCava's still-hilarious Depression-era comedy My Man Godfrey (1936; 5:45, 9:20 p.m.).
FRIDAY THROUGH SUNDAY: Marlon Brando plays a German officer opposite Montgomery Clift's and Dean Martin's Americans in The Young Lions (Edward Dmytryk, 1958) 7:30 p.m.; also Sat & Sun 2 p.m.
MONDAY & TUESDAY: Closed.
VICTORIA THEATRE
2961 16th St. (at Mission), 863-7576. This venerable old house frequently rents itself out for special screenings.
FRIDAY & SATURDAY: The 2004 edition of Spike & Mike's Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation screens every weekend through Dec. 25. $9 7:30, 9:30 p.m., midnight.
YERBA BUENA CENTER FOR THE ARTS
701 Mission (at Third Street, in Yerba Buena Gardens), 978-2787, www.YerbaBuenaArts.org. $7 save as noted. This venue's Screening Room is a home for film and video programs of all sorts.
WEDNESDAY: A Goethe-Institut screening of Marlene Dietrich: Her Own Song (J. David Riva, 2002), about the star's anti-Nazi activities during World War II. Filmmaker (and star's relative) in person. $6 7:30 p.m.
THURSDAY: The S.F. Cinematheque screens the second of a series of films by and about poets. Tonight, Plagiarism (Henry Hills, 1981), about New York's "language poets," plus The Last Clean Shirt (Alfred Leslie, 1964), Alan Sondheim and Kathy Acker's The Blue Tape (1974), and more 7:30 p.m.
FRIDAY: A three-week series of the video films of Nigeria's Tunde Kelani opens with Campus Queen (2004), a campus-set comedy along the lines of Spike Lee's School Daze. $8 7:30 p.m.
TUESDAY: A monthly "Human Rights Watch Bay Area Film Series" begins with a screening of Lost Boys of Sudan (Megan Mylan and Jon Shenk, 2004), which follows young refugees from the Sudan to the United States. Two "lost boys" now living in San Jose will be present after the film. $8 7:30 p.m.
